Let's talk Usenet providers

[Heran Bago]

My old ISP provided really terrible usenet access with a lot of missing articles. It was better than no usenet though. Now I'm with a company that doesn't provide any usenet access and it's not so fun.


I'm looking around at different providers. There's a list of some random ones here. What is your experience, GBAtemp? Any providers you recommend? Hate?

 

[raulpica]

I heard that Giganews was pretty good...

I personally use HitNews... Good retention and pretty good speeds.

 

[Salamantis]

I like Astraweb's Pay-By-Download plans... 90GB for 25$. Also 50 connections

And 122+ days of retention.

 

[Urza]

Usenet-News referral link, 100GB block account for 24USD:
http://usenet-news.net/?ref=66040

 

[Agjsdfd]

Is there any free usenet provide? I used firstload, when I was living in switzerland. but I want to try something free, slow speed doesnt matter.

 

[Heran Bago]

Is there any free usenet provide? I used firstload, when I was living in switzerland. but I want to try something free, slow speed doesnt matter.

there are, but they don't have alt.binaries



There are a couple 7-day trials of real services though, right?

 

[scruffman]

I personally use powerusenet. I cost $19.95USD a month with unlimited downloads. 105 days retention on binary stuff. I highly recommend it.

 

[mthrnite]

Giganews, maybe a little pricey, but the binary retention is frea-king awe-some.

 

[H8TR]

Giganews is probably one of the best. But I went to NewsDemon. $22.99 got me unlimited DL's, 20 connections, 110 day retention and SSL. But most of the time, I can't even connect to most of my 20 connetions. Almost all the time, at least 10 won't connect. That's why I'm going back to Giganews next month.

there are, but they don't have alt.binaries



There are a couple 7-day trials of real services though, right?

Giganews will give you 3 days. Just don't forget to opt out before the 3 days are over. A credit card is needed I believe.

 

[Agjsdfd]

Is there any free usenet provide? I used firstload, when I was living in switzerland. but I want to try something free, slow speed doesnt matter.

there are, but they don't have alt.binaries



There are a couple 7-day trials of real services though, right?

Would posting links from those providers?

 

[IBNobody]

Giganews is good if you just want to use an NNTP server, but I personally like Easynews the best. (www.easynews.com)

Easynews has NNTP access AND a nice web-based search engine. EN just recently upgraded their retention, too.

The engine may be buried, but the direct link is: http://members.easynews.com/global4/search.html

The search engine does neat things like auto-extraction of common file types. (You can DL an Xvid movie directly, rather than download all the RARs.) It will auto-fill in missing files, provided PAR2 files are present. It lets you view thumbnails of videos. You can create custom NZB files and then load 'em up in your newsreader of choice. Finally, it lets you zip up a bunch of files into a single archive to download.

EN provides 20GB a month for $9.98. NNTP downloads are discounted by 25%, making the 20GB go farther. Any unused gigs are rolled over. (I have 86 gigs in my gig bank.) For every year of membership, you get an extra gig. If you fill out a how-are-we-doing survey every week, you get 500MB (up to 2 GB a month). If you join their Grid.org team, you can trade in CPU time for extra gigs.

EDIT: I can't say enough about the search engine. It's insanely helpful.

 

[Talvon]

I second astraweb (http://news.astraweb.com) and their no monthly fee plans. A third of a year retention is more than you need, and I always get maximum download speeds with them.

 

[Sinkhead]

Usenet-News. Use Urza's referral link above

(I would usually give mine but I've got enough to last me years and years on my current monthly download limit from my ISP)

 

[jefffisher]

I usually recommend 100proofnews.com for their amazing price, although it seems they have recently changed their pricing structure they still have the easiest free trials anywhere.

 

[jalaneme]

usenet.net
$8.99 (first 3 months) 5 simultaneous connections and unlimited. 100 days retention
or $11.99 (first 3 months) 10 simultaneous connections and unlimited. also with 100 days retention you also get a 10gb free trial when you first sign up!

you will not find a deal any cheaper like this and unlimited, trust me I've looked lol

faq here if you want to look at the terms and conditions

 

[T-hug]

I used to use giganews for sometime but it got too pricey.
I recommend www.newshosting.com £8/$15 per month for unlimited use, found it as good as giga.

 

[yus786]

was on newshosting before but it only had like 50 days retention with the unlimited acc but now i use:

usenetserver.com

over 100 days retention
10 connections
unlimited downloads

$40 for 3 months which is a bargain imo

yus786

 

[jalaneme]

I recommend www.newshosting.com £8/$15 per month for unlimited use, found it as good as giga.

retention is too low

 

[hankchill]

I have to third Astraweb, because it's only $14.99 per month, 20 connections, unlimited downloads, and I always go at the maximum speed of the connection (1MB/sec at home, 3MB/sec at work)

 

[FAST6191]

Another vote for giganews.
A bit pricey (although offset for me by the weak US dollar). Retention, superb completion (I recently downloaded a 198 day old file: no need for PARs and that was not the first time I have done that),
Couple it with binsearch: http://www.binsearch.info/index.php?q=&m=&...font=&postdate= and newsleech: http://www.newzleech.com/ and a few choice sites leaves with I have more than I can handle (not enough drive space) for just about everything. I tried space limited accounts via friends but I kept finding stuff to get.